Weekend Update and More Solar

We got done last week what was expected....a lower low down into the close...all that remains now is to see what might happen on monday to give us the tidal low...we also have Don Wolanchuk's Wierd Wollie Wednesday coming up next week on the 6th of January...so there are reasons aplenty to expect a low early in the week.

Solar Panel Project:

Some pictures of last weeks progress. My collector will be 24" wide x 48" long (.61m x 1.22m). Around the perimeter of the panel and across the center of the panel will be 1" x 1" pine strips. Screws will attach the strips to the 5/8" thick plywood. These pictures show the painting and mounting of the pine strips. I put on one coat of Sherwin Williams latex prime and 3 coats of Behr latex semi-gloss enamel over the prime coat. Why these products? Because that's what I had hanging around the house.:) Should be fine, but it is important to adequately protect the wood and prevent moisture from entering the panel as this panel will be outdoors constantly in very severe condtions. All connections were glued (Elmers wood glue) and screwed before painting.

After the cells have been installed and all wired toegther, a sheet of plexiglass (also 24" x 48") will be installed and sealed over the pine strips to keep the weather out. Enjoy the pictures....next we'll take a look at assembling the solar cells and installtion into the panel. Oh, one final thing. The solar cells will be mounted on each of 2 pieces of pegboard. Each piece of pegboard is 20" x 22" and when attached into the panel will leave about 1" of clearance all the way around the edge of the pegboard. This will become clearer in future pictures.

Mid Week Update and Shine On

Looks like this morning that the futures are rolling over a little bit as expected. Still early, so we'll see what develops. Next turn date is monday, Jan 4th, 2010 and is a low. Very subdued markets over the holidays, enough to put you to sleep. On to other things this morning.

Below is a picture I took of the beginning of my solar project.

These are just some of the components that go into building a do-it-yourself solar panel. What you see here is a 2'x4' piece of 5/8" plywood, some pegboard, 3 of the total of 36 polychrystalline solar cells that will be joined in series to make the complete solar panel, tabbing wire, a solder flux pen, gloves for handling the very fragile solar cells, and 4 small diodes which act like check valves so that the power generated from the cells can only go in one direction.

The cells, diodes, tabbing wire and flux pen all came in the fed-ex box you see in the picture. This stuff came in a package kit I bought on ebay. The cells are 3" x 6" and are very fragile, sort of like a potatoe chip. The general idea here is to connect 36 of these cells in series to get an output from the panel of about 18 volts, since each cell should put out .5 volts under direct sunlight. Anyway, we'll delve deeper into the project in future blogs. Right now I have the panel box built and painted and am about to begin soldering the cells together. Steady as she goes, matey!